St John was a gifted storyteller, who allowed his characters to develop at their own pace. By doing this he highlighted the way many of them came to believe in Jesus. Like Nicodemus and the woman at the well, the man who was born blind came to a recognition of who Jesus was. In today’s account John used a paradox to emphasise the lesson he wanted to teach. The Pharisees, who were learned and saw themselves as disciples of Moses, were trapped in their self-importance, while the man Jesus cured was ready to learn and to believe: thus the blind man saw both physically and spiritually, whereas the Pharisees - who should have had perfect vision - remained blind.
There is another lesson in the story. Many Jews believed that misfortune was a punishment for sin. If they had read and reflected on the Book of Job they would have realised how false this belief was. What kind of God would punish the innocent? It suited the Pharisees, however, to cast the blind man in the role of sinner, because then his evidence would not be credible. His faith made him courageous in standing up to the leaders of his society. He paid the price by being thrown out of the Temple, which put him on the level of tax-collectors; yet his newfound sight made him eager to be witness to the truth and to worship Jesus.